The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-06-25
Complied Jor The ArhdHSaw TroUeier. SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

A German physicists new air ther- mometer not merely indicates but measures temperatures to one ten thousandth of centigrade degree.
 By the use of palladium in the hair spring and balance, Geneva watch maker claims to have produced &C., curate time pieces which are unaffec- ted by magnetism.
 On the first of May the Royal Geo. graphical Society of London num- bered 3,392 Fellows, and had assets amounting to more than S200,000, be- sides it's library and map collections.
 "At each equinox," says an astrono- mer, "there are about 102 hours that both poles have simultaneous view of the sun or part of it; and for thirty four hours the whole of it's disc is wis., ible to both.
 Cotton has been successfully intro duced into three districts of the Cau- casus, and extensive plantations are to be established in the vicinity of Fri van. The Caucasian Agricultural Society will send agents to study the American system of culture.
 An English mineralogist, Mir. Bryce Wright, gives the prices of iron in the form of meteorites as from S15 or S20 pound to as much as S60 an ounce. Some of the Russian meteor ties are worth $25 to $50 an ounce, and the prices generally have trebled in the last few years.
 CHEMICAL EFFECTS OF BATHING.- By experiments on dogs, NJ. E. Quin- quad finds that cold baths increases tenfold the rate of consumption of oxygen, double or treble the quantity of air passed through the lungs, aug ment the amount of carbonic acid ex- pelled, and very much increase the respiratory conclusions and the pro- duction of blood-sugar. Hot baths have like influence, but in less de- gree.
 PLANTS PECULIAR TO CERTAIN SoILs.-Dr. R. w. Raymond lately called attention to the reputed con- nection between certain plants and the metals in the underlying soil. Thus the zinc violet or Golmetceilchen. sometimes regarded as a distinct species under the name of Viola cota- min0ria-points out the hills con- taining calamine, or zinc ore, in Rhen- ish Prussia and Belgium. The lead plant AmO1phd canescenS is believed by American miners to grow only in localities containing galena, and Etao- gonum ovalJotium is probably des- tined to be known in the west as the silver plant.
 KLEINER's ALUMINUM PROCEss.- An electro chemical process of pre- pairing aluminum-quite distinct from the Cowles electric smelting process has been developed by pr. Kleiner, of Zurich. The method is simple and rapid, and is to be tested for year at works capable of turning out at least 200 pounds of pure metal per week. The two elements of the process are the ore e-cryolite, a double f1uoride of sodium and aluminum-and the power required to drive the dynamo; and it is expected to produce aluminium at very much less than half its present cost. Aluminium is very abundant in combined state, and its valuable properties must bring it into extensive demand when its preparation is suffi- ciently cheapened.
 AN ASTRONOMICAL PUzZLE.-One of the most mysterious and remarkable of the changes witnessed in the solar system is the variation in the bright ness of Jupiter's moons. Two of the four satellites occasionally cross the planets disc as dark objects, although their sunny sides are presented to us, and should appear no less brilliantly illuminated than the planet itself. The third and fourth satellites often make these dark transits, and the first is sometimes seen as a brown object, but the second has never been noticed otherwise than as bright disc. Dur ing recent months observations have been made of quite number of dark transits of the fourth satellite, and very few of the third. but the cause of the phenomenon remains without sat- isfactory explanation.
 ALTITUDE AND LATITUDE Heights, under the equator, from the sea to the level of 16,200 feet-that of perpetual snow-are divided by Meyer into eight zones or regions, which he names from the characteristic plants: 1, palms and bananas, beginning at sea-level; ?, tree-ferns and frs, at 2,02O feet; 8, myrtles and laurels, 4,050 feet; 4, ever- green dicotyledonous trees, 6,120 feet; 5, European dicotyledonous trees, S,1OO feet; 6, pines, 10, LAO feet; ', rho- dodendrons, 12,15O feet; 8, Alpine plants, 14,170 feet. The correspond ing zones in latitude, at sea-level, are: l, equatorial, latitude degrees-l5 degrees; ?, tropical, 15 degrees-23 de- grees; 3, sub-tropical, 23 degrees-34